Blood Money

The more I know the less I understand. It doesn't keep me from gettin mad though. Why are we going to pay Afghanistan (read Karzai) billions of dollars for a minimum of ten years after our withdrawal for the privilege of continuing to defend it?  Figure somewhere between four and six billion dollars per year. What am I missing here?

For one thing, it means more U.S. military casualties.  That's a given.  It means propping up a leader as corrupt as the day is long who we put in place not only once, but twice.  It means taking his abuse every time we look cross eyed and suffering his scoldings every time we sneeze. We're being made to look weak and subjective!

It means taking orders from him! It means continuing to train his security forces, the ones who with some regularity kill the very men training them.  Our men.  It means getting their permission for everything we do.  No more night raids.  No more launching drone attacks into Pakistan or any place else.

We're expected to support their economic development.  What?  Poppy production?  Education.  Women too? Not likely.  Health care and social initiatives?  What, pray tell!  Defend human rights and free speech?  Human rights?  This is Afghanistan we're talking about here.  The country the Taliban wants back.  Karzai is little more than the mayor of Kabul, by the grace of the Taliban at that.  The remainder of the country is still under the thumb of various war lords who side with us only if the money is right.

How this is supposed to insure stability in Central and South Asia is beyond me.  I'm not convinced any other country has an interest in that waste land other than us.  Our NATO allies are leaving.  We'll be there alone protecting the people against aggression from who?  They think it's us!

To make matters worse, it's being structured so the President doesn't even have to get Congressional approval.  Our only hope is they refuse funding.

I've long been weary of Mr. Karzai's abuse.  This is the last straw.  Bin Laden is dead.  He was the target from the get go and wasn't even there for the past six years or so.  Let's end it.   Really end it.  Karzai can tap the funds he has already embezzled to fund his protection.  It's not our responsibility to fund his retirement.

As I said, there is much I don't understand.  I do understand it's un-American for our military to have to pay lip service to a 'hostile' ally. Isn't it about time we put Mr. Karzai in his place?  We have a lot better use for four to six billion dollars a year in this country!  I can think of a lot better use for our young men and women's lives too!

If This Isn't Who We Are, Who Are We?

Not long ago photos appeared on the web of our service men urinating on dead Afghans and the cry went out.  "This isn't who we are!" It has happened again, an older incident, but one just published.  The same cry has gone out.

It seems to me we're doing a whole lot of denying and very little defining these days.

We're insensitive to our enemies during a war that has been waging for far too long.  We're racist when a white feels it necessary to defend himself. We're not God fearing enough if we're pro choice or neutral on Gay relationships. We're against the poor and the elderly if we think Obamacare is bad legislation.  We're selfish if we're wealthy. This isn't who we are either.  At least I hope not.

On the other hand who are we?  Are we the public servants working for the GSA who mock we tax payers as they party hardy on our money?  Are we the military and Secret Service personnel who partook of the ladies of the night in Colombia?

We're either very confused or just not very nice people any more.  Self indulgent.  Defensive.  Entitled?

Of course there is good out there.  Tons of it.  Kind,  caring,  giving people who do enormous good daily.  They just don't make good enough copy to sell papers or get a discussion going on Facebook or Twitter.  They don't raise your blood pressure.   They don't generate your rage.

I'd like to think they are the silent majority.  Once I would have argued that point.  However, when I read about the continuing abuses by Americans against Americans, like the actions of the TSA for instance, I find it impossible. Maybe it's not us, maybe it's those who we've elected to lead us. If so then shame on us.  We do seem willing to follow their lead however.

The military takes a lot of the abuse but I can't help but wonder from whence it comes.  The Coast Guard, for example, uses live animals for 'live tissue' training. It has been revealed that they will anesthetize a goat and cut off it's legs for the purpose.  Sometimes with nothing more sophisticated than a tree trimmer.

Well, that raises my blood pressure and generates my rage.  I ask you, what kind of people would sanction such  actions?  I cannot imagine.  Does it start at the top?  Is this really who we are?

There's Nothing Wrong With An Old Fashioned Man

Like many women today, I was incensed by Hilary Rosen's put down of Ann Romney and her husband.

Any woman who raises five children knows what "work" is.  Especially while battling MS among other ills over the years.  And just because a woman hasn't held a job that draws a paycheck doesn't mean she isn't keenly aware of the economics of living.  Even if wealthy.

By the same token, when a man defers to his wife as his source of knowledge about what women want it's pretty normal.  Men are from Mars.  Remember?  They don't fully understand women any better than we fully understand them.  We think differently.  It also doesn't mean he doesn't think of women as equals.

I'm married to an old fashioned guy.  One who doesn't wear his hat in the house, will still open a door for me, says please and thank you on a regular basis and remembers my birthday and our anniversary.

I remember him telling me, before we were married, about his accomplishments and what he wanted in the future.  The main thing was to be able to take care of his family.  That family has turned out to be just me and a passel of dogs over the years.

I didn't have to work, but having done so for a long time before marrying, I found myself missing the challenges and interactions with those "out there".  He never denied me when I went back to my work on various occasions, but I knew his feelings were hurt.  You see, in his generation, it was something expected of men - to provide, and a source of great pride when they were successful.  Mitt Romney is only five years younger than we are and I would guess his upbringing was much the same.

All that being said, my husband was as non-chauvinistic a man as you could find.  Women didn't work for him, they worked with him.  If they had the ability to do the job and did it they were treated no differently than their male counterparts.  The same truth applied if they failed.

The President has allegedly said they didn't have the luxury of Michelle not working.  He had a law degree from Harvard but chose to be a community organizer.  Her $300,000+ salary far outweighed his, obviously.  His priorities were different from Hubs; he could bask in his wife's earnings.  But I'd hardly say they were denied the luxury.

Once again it's a generational difference.  We've always been a team but he carried the weight because he felt it was his responsibility.  We're equals but as he once told me our strengths are in diffrent areas.  Not one better than the other, just different.

Maybe that's the difference.  We're the last of the "we" generation. Ms. Rosen and the Obamas represent the "me" generation. I'm old fashioned, I admit.  I'm becoming less flexible in my thinking; I tend to brush off rationale unless it really makes sense.  I do know,  however,  I  don't blame Hub for my shortcomings and he doesn't blame me for his.  We're pretty, what's the word I'm looking for - equal?  The paycheck may be a measure but not the only one and not necessarily the most important.

Newt, Newt, Newt...

How can you send in a filing fee to get on a ballot and have your check bounce, need 94% of the delegates yet to be assigned and still think you have a chance to win the nomination?  Ask Newt.

It would seem a few of his supporters have encouraged him to stay in the race. Too few I fear.  He thinks he'll do better in the upcoming races now that Santorum has bowed out.  Ninety four percent better?

Wow.  Me thinks he's more delusional than anything else.  In a way I feel sorry for him.  He is over $4 million in debt and had a whole 3500 people contribute through his website Tuesday afternoon.  How much would each have had to contribute to make a dent in his debt what's more fill his coffers enough to get his campaign out of Delaware and on to the bigger states like California, Pennsylvania and New York?

Maybe he takes to heart those who don't trust Romney; those who think the Mormons are out to take over the country should Romney be elected.  We had the same fears about Catholics.  Many have the same fears about the Evangelicals.  Religion.  It is the bane of politics and in many cases common sense.  Perhaps that's why the separation of church and state is so important.

All that aside, I wish Mr. Gingrich would suspend his campaign just to save himself and the party the embarrassment. Delusion does nothing to promote confidence.   Should he really like to be a player at the convention he would do well not to appear a spoiler now.

The issue is whether the party would turn to him should something catastrophic happen to Romney.  I seriously doubt it.  If they were to go to a previous candidate, which I doubt they would, it would more likely be Santorum.  He was plugging along with better momentum.  The illness suffered by his daughter is the straw that broke the campaign's back plus weariness on the part of  the electorate.  When people lose interest it's hard to generate votes - or money.

I'd rather we had a different front runner too.  I put too much faith in Obama last go round.  I over looked obvious flaws and red flags.  In case those who fear Romney for his religious convictions are correct about his intent,  I will remain vigilant.  I find it curious, however, if it is the threat as perceived, why has the press has made no mention of it?  Still, one never knows.  The press sees only what it wants to see.

On the other hand, I have to have faith in something better than what we have now. Where  this President is taking us is far worse than an unproven assumption about the contender.  Should the assumption prove true, we lose with either.

Let The Healing Begin - Please

One is cautioned to be careful about for which you wish.  I have for some time now wished Gingrich and Santorum would exit the Presidential primary.  Newt essentially did so over the week end.  Santorum did so today.  But oh, the damage done!

I wish I could be optimistic because of the news, but frankly, it was Mr. Romney's PACs that inflicted most of the damage.  I wonder if they can be as successful when pitted against the Obama machine.  My instinct is that we haven't seen anything yet.

I always wonder to what end all the negativity serves.  It tears down good people.  It does nothing to raise up those inflicting it.  Yet we are supposed to blithely accept that it's nothing more than politics and suddenly turn the resentment into support for the last man standing.

One thing nags, however.  Most of the negatives are based on at least a glimmer of truth.  Sorting out just what that glimmer is versus the whole is difficult at best.  So we hold our breath and hope for the best.

Let's face it. The Republicans have to get their act together and decide what exactly they represent.  Obviously the conservatism of the religious right differs from fiscal conservatism and they lost.  Romney can preach about how conservative he is to his heart's content and it won't make it true.  Plus he will now move more to the center to try to make up lost ground with the independents.  Me thinks he won't have to move much to find his comfort zone.

Two things I'll be watching.  The first will be whether or not Gingrich and Santorum will rally behind Romney or not.  There's a lot of bitterness to overcome.  The second and most important is whether or not Romney will find his voice and a message.  The general election should be a comparison of totally diverse philosophies of what this country should be and how to get it there.  Obama has a foot up.  He has made it abundantly clear where he wants us to go.  I for one want no part of it.

Romney has so far done little other than tout his business background and there is so much more that needs addressed.  It's more than just jobs and the economy.  It's energy policy, foreign policy, military strength and our country's place in the world.  Russia and China are nipping at our heels.  Israel is suspicious.  The Islamic countries are thumbing their noses at us. Others have dismissed us as irrelevant - a country whose time has passed.

Regaining our status will be a huge undertaking.  I know I'll get a ton of disagreement about this from many of my readers, but there is only one candidate who can make those changes.  The other has no intention of trying what's more doing so.